Michel Waisvisz ( ; 8 July 1949,

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

– 18 June 2008,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

) was a Dutch composer,

performer The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Perfor ...

and inventor of experimental electronic musical instruments. He was the artistic director of

STEIM STEIM (STudio for Electro Instrumental Music) was a center for research and development of new musical instruments in the electronic performing arts, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Beginning in the 1970's, STEIM became known as a pioneering cen ...

in Amsterdam from 1981, where he collaborated with musicians and artists from all over the world.

Biography

His involvement with STEIM goes back until 1969, when it had been co-founded by his mentor and friend Dick Raaymakers. He has been a member of Amsterdam's Electric Music Theatre scene of the 1970s, performing intensively and raising critical voices against the upcoming high-tech culture. He co-founded and organised the first sound festival in the Netherlands: The Claxon Sound Festival. Waisvisz had a passionate dedication to a physical, bodily approach to electronic music which he has expressed in the use and presentation of his many developments of hardware and software instruments. From his point of view electronic music is created in direct musical interaction with individual technology, allowing for instant travels into sound through improvisation. This multidimensionality in electronic musical practice has been summed up in the expression of

Touch In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch ( haptic perception), as well as temperature ( thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It ...

in an essay together with

Joel Ryan Joel or Yoel is a name meaning "Yahweh Is God" and may refer to: * Joel (given name), origin of the name including a list of people with the first name. * Joel (surname), a surname * Joel (footballer, born 1904), Joel de Oliveira Monteiro, Brazili ...

and Sally Jane Norman in 1998.

Discography

*1974 ''Lumps'' (with

Steve Lacy (saxophonist) Steve Lacy (born Steven Norman Lackritz; July 23, 1934 – June 4, 2004) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone. Coming to prominence in the 1950s as a progressive dixiela ...

Han Bennick Han Bennink (born 17 April 1942) is a Dutch drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured him playing soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, trombone, violin, banjo and piano. Though perhaps best known as one of the pivotal fig ...

, Maarten Van Regteren Altena) *1978 ''Crackle'' *2005 ''In Tune'' *2008 ''Shortwave'' (with Christine Sehnanoui)

Appears On

*1974

- ''Saxophone Special'' *1987 ''New Computer Music'' (

WERGO WERGO is a German record label focusing on contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1962 by German art historian and music publisher (1903–1975) and the musicologist Helmut Kirchmeyer. Their first release, filed under "WER 60001", was ...

)

Musical instruments

Hardware Instruments:
'' TapePuller (1970):'' an instrument to play seated, pulling a tape with both feet over the tapehead, thus using the recording medium in a performative manner. '' CrackleBox (1974):'' a portable instrument with batteries and a built-in speaker. The oscillator is played by the direct touch of the fingers on the exposed contacts of the circuit. The player's skin becomes part of the circuit. '' CrackleSynth (1974):'' Michel Waisvisz' individual synthesizer. After bending a

VCS3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analog synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (London) Limited (EMS) in 1969. EMS release ...

Synth (the "Putney") in the early 70s to play it with a touchable "crackle" surface, this three voiced instrument became Michel Waisvisz' synthesizer development. It has 12 keys with tuning knobs combined with three crackle-patches. ''

The Hands ''The Hands'' ( es, Las manos) is a 2006 Argentinean-Italian film directed by Alejandro Doria. The plot was inspired by the life and work of Catholic priest Mario Pantaleo. Doria and Juan Bautista Stagnaro wrote the screenplay. The film won o ...

(1984):'' One year after the

MIDI MIDI (; Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and ...

standard had been introduced, Waisvisz built the first experimental interface making use of sensor data converted into MIDI. The two wooden frames attached to both hands let him play music with hand and arm movements, tilting gestures, and fingered playing. Converting analog sensor data into digital musical data has become a major issue at STEIM in the 1990s, introducing the mini computer The SensorLab. Crackle Box.jpg, Crackle Box Michel Waisvisz - The Hands - 2006.jpeg, The Hands

Software instruments

He has also worked on the creation of software instruments, developed with STEIM's programmer Frank Baldé: * ''LiSa'' (Live-Sampling Instrument, since 1995) Software for the Mac, processing live audio input, or data from the memory in a most versatile way. * ''JunXion'' (Sensor-to-Midi Matrix, since 2002): Converting sensor data into musical data today can be done by every laptop computer. The Energetica Project (since 2005) "Energetica" is Waisvisz' vision of electricity provided for electronic instruments by the effort of the player him/ herself, theoretically developed in the last years of his life. As he has always fought pre-configurations and built-in directions in technology, the subjection to the communal power supplies. Michel Waisvisz' collaborations include performances with

Maarten Altena Maarten van Regteren Altena (born January 22, 1943) is a Dutch composer and contrabassist. Altena attended the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (he studied contrabass) and graduated in 1968. Between 1980 and 1985, he studied composition with Robert ...

Laurie Anderson Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...

, Tarek Atoui, Frank Baldé, Lodewijk de Boer,

Willem Breuker Willem Breuker (4 November 1944 – 23 July 2010) was a Dutch bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and clarinetist. Career During the mid 1960s, he played with percussionist Han Bennink and pianist Misha Mengelberg, co-founding the I ...

Peter Brötzmann Peter Brötzmann (born 6 March 1941) is a German saxophonist and clarinetist. Biography Early life Brötzmann was born in Remscheid, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. He studied painting in Wuppertal and was involved with the Fluxus movement ...

, Najib Cheradi, John Cameron (

Claw Boys Claw Claw Boys Claw are a Netherlands, Dutch rock and roll band, formed in Amsterdam. The core members of the band are Peter te Bos (vocals) and John Cameron (guitar). The band released eight full-length albums between 1983 and 1997. After some year ...

), Truus de Groot,

Gunter Hampel Gunter Hampel (born 31 August 1937) is a German jazz vibraphonist, clarinettist, saxophonist, flautist, pianist, and composer. He became dedicated to free jazz in the 1960s, developing a record label (Birth Records) and working with Jeanne Lee, ...

, Paul Hubweber, Shelley Hirsch,

Mazen Kerbaj Mazen Kerbaj (born Beirut, 1975) is a Lebanese jazz and free improvisation trumpeter and comic book artist. Early life and education Kerbaj grew up in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, and began playing free jazz in local clubs following th ...

, Steve Lacy,

Misha Mengelberg Misha Mengelberg (5 June 1935 – 3 March 2017) was a Dutch jazz pianist and composer.Feather, Leonard & Gitler, Ira (2007) ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'', p. 459. Oxford University Press. A prominent figure in post-WWII European Jazz ...

, Patrizia van Roessel,

, Christine Sehnoaui, Fausto Senese, Shusaku, Laetitia Sonami, DJ sniff,

DJ Spooky Paul Dennis Miller (born September 6, 1970), known professionally as DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is an American electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntabli ...

Richard Teitelbaum Richard Lowe Teitelbaum (May 19, 1939 – April 9, 2020) was an American composer, keyboardist, and improvisor. A student of Allen Forte, Mel Powell, and Luigi Nono, he was known for his live electronic music and synthesizer performances. He was ...

Moniek Toebosch Monique Pauline Maria Josephine Toebosch, also known by the pseudonym Paul Rubens, (19 August 1948 – 24 November 2012) was a Dutch actress, artist and musician. She began her performing career in 1969 and produced improvised music. Toebosch coll ...

, Jan St. Werner,

Frans Zwartjes Frans is an Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish given name, sometimes as a short form of ''François''. One cognate of Frans in English is ''Francis''. Given name * Frans van Aarssens (1572–1641), Dutch diplomat ...

References

External links

http://www.crackle.org/
- text and image archive for Michel Waisvisz

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waisvisz, Michel 1949 births 2008 deaths Dutch musicians Inventors of musical instruments People from Leiden